'Together we can': Hundreds gather at Utah State Capitol for Overdose Awareness Day

SALT LAKE CITY — Hundreds of people crowded the south steps of the Utah State Capitol on Saturday for International Overdose Awareness Day.

The day is recognized on a global scale every year on Aug. 31. It is the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose and remember loved ones who died due to overdose.

Beginning in 2021, Overdose Awareness Day was officially recognized in Utah.

FOX 13 News spoke with Richard Beeman on Saturday. He lost his son, Jesse, to an overdose on May 14, 2011.

“He was a wonderful kid, a real wonderful kid. Did a lot for people, cared about everybody but himself, he did,” said Beeman.

Beeman said his son’s death happened just shy of his 20th birthday.

“I wish I could have saved him,” said Beeman. “He OD’ed the third time and passed away.”

It’s a feeling Terry Olsen knows all too well.

“It’ll be 10 years that I lost my 25-year-old son Dane to a heroin overdose,” said Olsen.

Olsen is a board member of Changes Parent Support Network, which she describes as a support group for families who have a loved one causing conflict in their home.

“The whole experience when we went through our loss, the support I received from other people … saved my sanity, helped me work through something that wasn’t in the script for our life,” said Olsen.

The theme of the event at the capitol on Saturday was “Together We Can.”

Names of loved ones lost to an overdose were read. Several speakers also stepped up to the microphone to tell their story, like Tiffany Naccarato.

“I want to say thank you to the people who helped save my life. A lot of them aren’t here today, they were not able to stand here, and it makes me happy that they chose to save my life,” said Naccarato, who serves as the community impact manager for Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness. “I’m actually a 12 survivor of overdose.”

Olsen told FOX 13 News on Saturday that she is grateful every year to see the response, the people that show up to support this event and the people who are there to honor those who have been lost.

She also wants to help find solutions.

“And help for the people who are still here that we want to see not on a poster at the next overdose awareness,” said Olsen.

Provisional data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics indicate there were an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. during 2023. That is a 3% decrease from the estimated numbers in 2022.

This marked the first annual decrease since 2018.

On Friday, Utah Governor Spencer Cox issued an order for the U.S. flags and Utah flags to be flown at half-staff on all state facilities in recognition of Overdose Awareness Day.